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The
lawsuit accuses the social media giant of contributing to the
youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately
designing features that get children addicted to its platforms.
It also argues that Meta routinely collects data on children
under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal
law.
“This week, we’re in court with the largest consumer protection
lawsuit in American history. We’ll show a jury that Meta
concealed what it knew about the harm its products cause young
people because looking away was more profitable,” said Kentucky
Attorney General Russell Coleman in a statement.
Meta said it believes it has a strong case.
“We are proud of our record in protecting teens on our platforms
and the amount of effort that we’ve put into developing
protections over the years, even before these cases were ever
filed, and continuing to the present day. We look forward to
showing the judge and the jury those facts in court,” the
company said in a statement.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland will
oversee the proceedings, which are expected to last six to eight
weeks, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives and
former employees testifying. Gonzalez Rogers, appointed to the
bench by President Barack Obama in 2011, has overseen a bevy of
complex, high-profile cases involving Big Tech. These include
Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and its founders as well as
Epic Games' lawsuit against Apple over its app store.
The trial is the latest in an avalanche of lawsuits against Meta
Platforms and other social media companies including Google’s
YouTube, TikTok and Snap, over arguments that their platforms
harm young people, illegally collect their data and are
deliberately designed to addict them.
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AP Technology Writer Kaitlyn Huamani contributed to this story
from Los Angeles.
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